DefinitelyDressage.com

First to respond here.

Ok, how about a cutting horse?

Has to be your horse or at least you own the photo.

My horse, my husband took the photo.

Wow!

Well, not a very good example of "Square Halt at X" but, ok.


















JK JK JK JK

And March 3rd is both of our birthdays. She was kind enough to come a week early and surprise us.

Boots, It's the new directive "halt on your belly at x"

What's her name and story? She's lovely!

I like it! Look at the expression on the calf behind her....

GREAT picture!!!

I'm laughing at the calf at the right, backed up to the fence and probably thinking, "Please, please don't let them see me!"

Mr Jersey was actually thinking, I'll just stand here and spectate. He was soooo tame that to try work him we would have to run up to him and slap him on the bum to get him moving. He was a bit like Linus, always had a cloud of flies on his bum. Cows desensitize rapidly as they figure out that the horse really can't do anything to them so they stop trying to get away from them. The one she is working, the corriente, was a wild little bugger and continued to work fairly well.

She is the namesake of the farm and my username. Tuffy (Smart Primo Lena) was foaled in 2003, out of my paint mare by a double registered paint quarterhorse cutting horse. He was the son of cutting royalty (Smart Little Lena, Little Tenina). She was a pistol and a hunter from day 1. She tracked whatever was in her field including f-350's and when there was a loud noise that the others ran from she would run towards it to see what it was.

She went out for training as a 3 year old (I bucked the cutting futurity path) and was there for 9 months where I got rave reviews from the trainer as to her abilities but I was so buried in work at the time I would go check on her every couple of weeks but didn't get to ride her much. Trainer had to shut down and rush back to california to take care of his fathers business so I got her back with little idea where the buttons were.

We did arena work, clinics and trail rode for years. I did a couple of clinics with very famous, multi-world championship cowhorse trainers and they all were very impressed with her. One wanted to buy her. His opinion was that the trainer who started here didn't know what to do with her talent. That was the equivalent of Hilda Gurney wanting to buy your homebred.

A couple more years of being a pasture ornament with the occasional trail ride and then a local up and coming trainer advertises he has cows and will give lessons (finding cows to work is like diamonds around here). I went for a lesson and he liked the mare. A couple of weeks later I go for another lesson and that darn little corriente put us in the dirt (horse and cow cut back and forth twice then a sneaky cut back to the left when I was still thinking right and I ended up with my ass in the dirt). Trainer got on her to check out what was going on and laughed that I had been fed to the wolves (meaning her abilities were very far beyond mine).

He called me a week later and wanted her in training for free cause he was trying to build a reputation and this was the kind of horse that could help. Even though I could hardly afford it (I had to pay board, not his facility) she went since this cutting horse thing was my life long dream that has basically been on hold forever. They did very little for a week but condition and work on correct turns and then he started putting her on cows. 2 weeks in he tells me she is world champion potential (or was. that only happens with the youngsters, not 12 year olds). Another 2 weeks later he is offered the job as 2 year old trainer for one of the premier cutting horse breeders and trainers in Texas and off he goes. So she was a cutting horse again for about 5 weeks. Great fun and immense satisfaction that I indeed bred the horse of my dreams even though her talent won't be truly fulfilled.

That photo was taken after about 3 weeks at the trainers. His biggest task was making her slow down and turn correctly. That is how purpose bred these horses are that after 10 years of no cows she is trying to work like she has been in constant training for years and just how much they love doing it.

Here is another photo. Note the expression of death on her face and the trainers just laughing at her determination.

WOW, Tuffy! Talk about forward! And supple! She is SO determined! I bet she is FUN to ride!

Forward to the cow, lol. With no cow she is quite lazy. She is the one I put beginners on and her first impulse is to see if they can even make her go. When tuned up she is quite fun to ride.

Her mother on the other hand was the most forward in front of the leg horse I ever rode.

This is more akin to her preferred way of life.

That's a great story, Tuffy.

Agree, great story.